How Pizza Stones Can Raise Your Food Experience to a Higher Level

No dish has as many fans around the world as the pizza. The love for a round piece of dough with toppings goes so far that even psychologists have begun to evaluate people based on their favorite toppings. There are many reasons why this Italian dish is a favorite food of people of all ages. One of the main ones is the ease of preparation. 

Those who prepare this delicacy often know that pizza stones have been around for a while. There are more than enough people who swear by them, as these cooking surfaces can bring many advantages to your cooking skills. You sure know that because many restaurants have them in their cuisines. 

As it is cheap and easy to use, you can get one for yourself. Whether you are having dinner for two or a party, having a baking stone in your kitchen makes the experience of making this dish much more comfortable.

Evenly Baking

The principle on which the baking stone works is straightforward. The stone heats up in the oven and stores heat inside. When you transfer pizza or other food to a hot surface, there is an instantaneous heat transfer from the stone surface to the dough. 

This instantaneous burst of heat allows the dough to swell quickly. It will keep all those air bubbles inside, keeping just enough moisture to be crispy and soft at the same time. The heat spreads evenly during the entire baking process and thus optimizes it.

Save Time on Baking

Preparing pizza doesn’t take too much time, especially if you buy already prepared crust. That is what most people love about this dish. But baking can sometimes take a long time, as the oven in your home cannot reach the temperature of a commercial oven. That is why your dish can’t be ready in just 4 or 5 minutes, like in restaurants.

But if you get a baking stone, that will be doable. The benefit of using this surface is that it saves a lot of time. The medium-sized flatbread can be ready in about 5 minutes. The time can vary depending on the dough’s thickness, the toppings, and the oven itself, but it’s still shorter than in a tin pan.

Since the pizza will be baked evenly by the stone, that will optimize the cooking time. When baking in the oven, most heat will go to the pizza surface. You will get the crispy crust, but the rest of the dough will be raw. Any dough baked on the stone is done faster than an unheated pan. It is evenly baked because of the balance of heat exerted by the baking surface.

If you can’t get any pizza stone, this link has some tips on how to improvise.

The Taste Is Great

Those who still didn’t get a pizza stone, bake this dish on a tin or pan. It takes a lot more time to bake this way, sometimes even half an hour. Such long heating results in a stiffer and drier dough and the toppings that are overcooked. When burnt, cheese, meat, herbs, and vegetables lose a good part of the aroma.

Due to the shorter and more efficient baking process when using stone, the pizza ingredients keep their flavors and juiciness. The dough remains light and airy but still soft enough so you can enjoy every bite. That is something you can achieve when preparing pizza in the wood-fired backyard oven or covered grill. Even though pizza from the oven tray tastes good, you’ll get a real delicacy if you bake it on the stone.

Have the Crust You Love

By using a pizza stone, you’ll have more control over what kind of crust you want. Someone like it thinner, while others enjoy it when it is thicker, like bread. Then, some people like their crust filled with gooey cheese. No matter which type of crust you prefer, it can deal with all of them.

Getting a perfect crust is not just a matter of temperature. It’s more about evenly distributed heat and the surface on where you put the dough. When baking in the oven (even those with a specific program for dough baking), it can’t reach a temperature higher than 400 Fahrenheit. 

Sure, it will remain constant, but that can be a bad thing if you like a thinner crust. The pizza will be overly baked and not much tasty. You can do nothing but throw it in the trash. The stone and all those cracks on it will save the day. These will allow steam from the dough to evaporate, leaving the dough dry but not drained.

Heat Distribution

The rule for successful pizza baking and getting a crispy crust (regardless of thickness) is that the higher the temperature, the shorter the baking time. In order for this process to succeed, it is necessary to bake the dish both from below and above. When using a pan, most heat spreads over the pizza surface.

With baking stone, you can use oven programs that allow the maximum temperature of the stove. Then the temperature is evenly distributed on its surface, which is about the same heat as the rest of the oven. That is what makes pizza baking even and significantly shorter. In order to achieve that, the stone must be preheated in the oven for at least 20 minutes. When both surface and dough are hot, it will be easier to transfer the dish to the serving tray or plate. Or you can serve it on a stone, just like in a fancy Italian restaurant.

Once you bake a yummy flatbread on a quality baking stone, you will ever go back to the old way of baking. Pizza prepared on its surface is incomparably tastier than that baked in a tin or any other tray. You will be happy to know that cleaning and removing the gunk from the stones is easy and simple as it usually does not require persistent rubbing and aggressive cleaning agents.

Category: Food.Fun.Stuff.